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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Aruna Roy cautions against haste in passage of Lokpal Bill by Vidya Subrahmaniam

Aruna Roy cautions against haste in passage of Lokpal Bill by Vidya Subrahmaniam

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published Published on Jul 7, 2011   modified Modified on Jul 7, 2011

NCPRI proposes bringing PM under Lokpal, suggests basket of anti-corruption measures

The National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) has proposed bringing the Prime Minister under the Lokpal with the safeguard that the executive head can only be investigated on the recommendation of the full benches of the Lokpal and the Supreme Court.

At a consultative meeting held here on Friday, the NCPRI, which has two National Advisory Council members, Aruna Roy and Harsh Mander, on its working committee, sharply critiqued the draft Lokpal Bill which was released by the five ministers on the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee. The NCPRI called the ministerial draft “inadequate and limited,” and in its place unveiled a basket of anti-corruption measures which it positioned as an alternative to the ministerial draft as well as the Jan Lokpal Bill drawn up by Anna Hazare's team of activists.

The meeting also cautioned against excessive haste in getting the anti-corruption law on board. Ms. Roy said a landmark legislation such as this could not be held hostage to unrealistic deadlines: “Just to get a law in order to get a law and be burdened by it is not a solution. We need to budget for time.”

Participants urged wider geographic consultations covering both the stakeholders and political parties. There was also a suggestion that the NAC be brought back into the Lokpal discussion as a means to get alternative voices heard on the Lokpal draft. The NAC which had the Lokpal Bill on its agenda, withdrew from the discussions after the government, bowing to pressure from Mr. Hazare, set up the joint drafting committee.

It was clear at the meeting that the NCPRI felt discomfited by the usurping of civil society space by the Anna Hazare group. Participants asked to know who constituted civil society, and if any one outfit could claim to represent the people at large.

Medha Patkar, who joined the meeting midway, expressed distress at the fracturing of civil society and urged greater cooperation between the NCPRI and the Hazare group. Shekhar Singh of the NCPRI said though the NCPRI had made overtures, the Hazare group appeared disinclined to broaden the discussion and was insistent on having its own way on the Bill. Ms. Roy asked Ms. Patkar not to be overwhelmed by the large middle class turnouts at Mr. Hazare's meetings.

Earlier, the NCPRI rejected the idea of a single, powerful Lokpal, arguing instead that corruption and grievances needed to be addressed by a multiplicity of bodies, each of which would be individually accountable to the public, so that there was no one institution concentrating too much power. The organisation also held that merely enacting new laws would not end corruption when the same objective could be achieved by strengthening existing frameworks and laws.

Among the NCPRI's basket of measures:

1. A Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas only to target high-level political and bureaucratic corruption. In this category, complaints would be investigated against the Prime Minister, Central and State Ministers, legislators, councillors and Grade A officers.

2. A strengthened Central Vigilance Commission to tackle corruption in the lower bureaucracy.

3. A judicial Commission and the enactment of an effective Judicial Accountability and Standards Bill to cover judges.

4. A separate Act to enable the setting up of Lok Shikayat Grievance Redress Commissions at the Centre and the States. The Commissions would, through a decentralised grass-roots mechanism, address complaints and grievances of the larger public.

5. A comprehensive Act to protect whistleblowers


The Hindu, 7 July, 2011, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2201791.ece


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